It is not real

[frankshank]

Hi Burt,

That's a fair enough question. I guess I'm here to find answers rather than a solution.

Many years ago I had a profound spiritual experience (or perhaps 'I' didn't have the experience - whatever). I had no knowledge of enlightenment and the experience gradually faded. It's only in the last 6 months or so that I've really started to look into what happened. I've been reading books and visiting this forum and it's really helped me, at a thinking level, to understand. I have a sneaky feeling it will happen again and 'Frank' will be seen to be the charlatan that he is but I feel no desperate need for that to happen.

I enjoy visiting this forum as I've always been into deep stuff. My posts often consist of playful banter (I enjoy banter) but I'm very much here to learn. Am I a skeptic? Sometimes I am, sometimes I'm not. The truth won't feel hurt by my skepticism.

How do I know that nothing really matters? If we are awareness then awareness just is. From my own dream perspective I'm just a speck of dust on planet earth. How can my life really matter?! Suffering individuals think that the world revolves around them. Well it doesn't. Am I a suffering individual? Yes I am. Do I often fall into the trap of thinking that the world revolves around me? Yes I do. I still know it to be completely ridiculous though. It's obvious.

[lobo]

Hi Frank,
I appreciate your candid response
and I think I understand where you are coming from.

I think it is good that you are looking into your experience for yourself and not accepting someone else's explanation or beliefs, or, god forbid, "chasing enlightenment". From this perspective, all self-knowledge must arise within the self. All searching for truth of being should be rooted in this. That is something I know, really know from experience, but have to relearn at times due to forgetfulness or having been tempted to chase something. It can only arise from within. OK, I have been talking to myself again LOL

One thing I would encourage you to look into more closely is the first two sentences of your last paragraph. Look at the premise "If we are awareness then...."
Drop everything after the "then" and don't make it an intellectual exercise. Keep it experiential, as much as you can, look, question, feel, just be with what is there, whatever you can do or call it, but keep it rooted in the present experience.

Also, I would not worry about others experiences that have been very difficult for them. It does not mean that you will have that same exact experience. Each person has their own drama in this LOL Some even report experiencing mostly blissfullness....
Personally I find that my own suffering is caused by beliefs I am holding, and these can be deconstructed by dispassionate observation and questioning....looking for truth.

Thanks for your post Frank, and all the best to you

[Santosh]

Namaste

Listen to this without listening just let the words draw you in to silence. Well spent five minutes of Robert Adams speaking.

itisnotreal.com/priortoconsciousness.mp3

Om Shanti

Santosh